Collection: Edmund C. Tarbell

Edmund Charles Tarbell (b.1862- 1938), was a 19th century American Impressionist painter from Massachusetts and a member of the Ten American Painters. Tarbell studied the Massachusetts Normal Art School, the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Academie Julian in Paris and was a leader of the Boston School of Painters.

Tarbell’s wife, four children, and three granddaughters served as his muses and the subject matter for many of his works. He is known for his soft portraits of posed family members that focus on the human figure in quiet traditional interior settings, which convey his traditional gentile New England motif. His works would later serve as an illustration of his family member’s lives, in addition to, becoming synonymous with New England’s past, themselves.

Today his works can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, DeYoung Museum, and National Academy Museum and School. Tarbell is a Member of the National Academy of Design which is the leading honorary society for visual artists and architects in the United States, Each year, new National Academicians are inducted into our membership by current members. This honor cannot be applied for or solicited.